Antique coins found in Hue rivers

17 January 2007 (Vietnam Net Bridge) – A report on the trade in antique coins found in the Hue river in Vietnam.

Antique coins found in Hue rivers

For the past several years, beside ceramic works, fishermen have found a large number of antique coins in rivers in Hue and sold them to antique money collectors.

Most of the coins are made of copper and zinc. There are sometimes gold and silver coins that were minted for award purposes rather than to be used on the market.

The coins show that people in Hue in particular and in the central region in general used many kinds of coins minted at different historical periods including “Gia Long Currency,â€ “Minh Mang Currency” and even the very rare “Ham Nghiâ€ coins made during the Nguyen dynasty, and â€œQuang Trung Currencyâ€ and “Canh Thinh Currency” of Emperor Quang Trungâ€™s period.

According to an expert on Hueâ€™s history, Mr. Ho Tan Phan, the discovery of such a rich source of old coins reaffirms the conclusion of many research works that todayâ€™s Thua Thien â€“ Hue used to be a big regional trading and foreign exchange centre.